New-ish Show to Catch Up On: SLEEPY HOLLOW

We’ve got well over a month before network shows return from their summer hiatus, but we’re just about reaching the point where decisions need to be made about catching up on shows that may have been missed (or initially passed over) last season in order to be current when things return.

And hey, there’s a lot of great TV on these days. Sometimes it’s hard to commit to a show until you’ve heard from enough people that it’s actually good/you know it will return for a second season. So, on that note, I do have a few suggestions for shows you should bump to the top of your list.

Next up? SLEEPY HOLLOW!

The show’s original pitch: “What if you suddenly woke up from the throes of death 250 years in the future to find the world is on the brink of destruction, caused by unimaginable events, and you are humanity’s last hope? Welcome to SLEEPY HOLLOW, the thrilling new mystery-adventure drama from co-creators/executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (“Star Trek” and “Transformers” franchises, “Fringe”). In this modern-day retelling of Washington Irving’s classic, ICHABOD CRANE (Tom Mison, “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”) is resurrected and pulled two and a half centuries through time to unravel a mystery that dates all the way back to the founding fathers. Revived alongside Ichabod is the infamous Headless Horseman who is on a murderous rampage in present-day Sleepy Hollow. Bound to the Headless Horseman by a blood spell cast on the battlefield of the American Revolution, Ichabod quickly realizes that stopping Headless is just the beginning, as the resurrected rider is but the first of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. As this re-invented Ichabod finds himself in present-day Sleepy Hollow, he discovers a town and a world he no longer recognizes. All that is brutally familiar are Headless and Ichabod’s determination to annihilate this immortal being. It’s a mission he must complete quickly, as Headless already has viciously slain Sheriff AUGUST CORBIN (guest star Clancy Brown, “Cowboys & Aliens,” “Carnivale”). Corbin served both as mentor and father figure to Detective ABBIE MILLS (Nicole Beharie, “Shame,” “American Violet”), a young cop whose own supernatural experiences help her form an unlikely bond with Ichabod. But Sleepy Hollow’s head of police, Captain FRANK IRVING (Orlando Jones, “The Chicago 8,” “Drumline”), isn’t buying any of this. In fact, the only person who is on Abbie’s side is Ichabod. His extensive first-hand knowledge of our secret American history, coupled with her superior profiling and modern threat assessment skills, will make them a formidable duo as they work together to triumph over evil. The complex pasts of Ichabod and Abbie, from Ichabod’s inclusion in the powerful and secretive Freemasons Society and the ghostly appearance of his late wife, KATRINA (Katia Winter, “Dexter”), to Abbie’s childhood visions, will help them solve the intricate puzzles of Sleepy Hollow in order to protect its future. As history repeats itself, the oddly-linked pair will draw on the real stories and hallowed secrets this nation was founded on in their quest to stop an increasingly vicious cycle of evil.”

What the log line doesn’t tell you about season 1: Look, if you initially saw/heard that SLEEPY HOLLOW was about a time-traveling Ichabod Crane and raised your eyebrow, I can’t blame you — it sounds ridiculous. What any description can’t really say is how amazingly the show embraces the insanity of its circumstances, while still being grounded enough to makes you really care about every character.

Tom Mison is so good as Ichabod that it’s hard to imagine the show working nearly as well with anyone in the role — he manages to portray Ichabod as often charmingly baffled by modern times, and yet never goes too far to make it campy. Nicole Beharie is every part his acting equal as Abbie, a modern day detective/Ichabod’s partner-in-crime, whose own ties to the show’s core mythology gets doled out as the season progresses.

Admittedly, I was all-in after watching the pilot (and have covered the heck out of the show since then), but it was a delightful surprise that not only did SLEEPY HOLLOW sustain its fun tone, but it actually got better. SLEEPY HOLLOW’s freshman season was one of the strongest first-year runs in a while, and if you haven’t be spoiled on the twists and turns the show took, please go watch before it gets ruined.

Why SLEEPY HOLLOW showrunner Mark Goffman thinks you should catch up: “It’s an adventure! It’s a romp; it’s a lot of fun. You might even get a little piece of history [knowledge] that you didn’t know. It’s fun. The show is just plain fun.”